Tag: Tom Watson (Labour politician)

Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for what he called “pockets of antisemitism” in his party, after Jewish leaders called for a solidarity protest outside parliament on Monday evening to warn the Labour leadership that “enough is enough”. “We are campaigning to increase support and confidence in Labour among Jewish people in the UK”. Enough is enough,” they said, calling on “members of our community and all those who oppose antisemitism” to gather in Parliament Square as Labour MPs meet. Several Labour MPs have said they would like to hear an explanation from Corbyn directly, after Facebook posts emerged in which he appeared to show his support for an antisemitic mural in 2012. The statement said the mural was “offensive, used antisemitic imagery, which has no place in our society, and it is right that it was removed”. A later statement from Corbyn added: “I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on.” But Sunday’s statement from Jewish leaders condemned Corbyn’s response as “far too little, far too late”. She said: “It fails to understand on any level the hurt and anguish felt about antisemitism.” But Watson defended Corbyn on Sunday, saying he had expressed deep regret and apologised. Watson said: “I’m very, very sorry that people feel hurt by this and that’s why I think it’s right that Jeremy has expressed regret for it. He said that he didn’t see the mural, he was talking about free expression and I think now that he has seen the mural, he’s right to say that it was right not just to be removed but that he expresses deep regret for the offence caused by the mural.” Starmer said the image was “antisemitic and we need to be absolutely clear about that”. He said: “The most important thing is that the Labour party keeps on saying that antisemitism has no place in our party, in our communities or in our society, and we’ve got to have zero tolerance.